This disclosure relates generally to the control of feature programming in a production system and more particularly to a graphical user interface system and method utilized by system controllers, job submission utilities, and finishing equipment for concurrently applying multiple feature operations to a single production job.
Various methods have long been used to prepare printed material in a final or finished state for a user of the material. Such finishing techniques include folding, binding, stapling, excess paper trimming, hole drilling and the like. In earlier times, the printing and finishing steps were accomplished independent of each other. In such cases, the completed print jobs, consisting of a plurality of discrete groups of associated output sheets, are typically marked with a file or other identifier used to alert a finishing operator to the desired finishing for the print job.
Increasingly today printers are fitted with finishing terminals capable of providing more than one finishing option to a job, for example, to both hole punch and staple the output pages. Previously, such options were mutually exclusive; the device could either staple or fold the output but could not do both. On such devices, separate user interface controls are utilized to enable each option. When multiple options are enabled in a single device, separate controls become inefficient and result in the programming of conflicting finishing operations. These conflicts often are not detected until the device attempts to complete the print job, resulting in delays and rework associated with faulted jobs.
There is no existing method for multiple finishing options that can be programmed concurrently for use when a variety of finishing options are available through a system controller, submission utility or finishing device. Therefore, what is needed is a method that allows a user of a document production system to select among multiple finishing options that may be selected on a concurrent basis to avoid conflicting selections. For the reasons stated above, and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for a method of allowing a user of a document production system to select among multiple finishing operations and schedule them from a single interface concurrently.
All U.S. patents and published U.S. patent applications cited herein are fully incorporated by reference. The following patents or publications are noted:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,104,470 to Streefkerk et al. (“Printing System and Control Unit Utilizing a Visual Representation of a Sheet or Document for Selecting Document-Finishing Operations”) describes a printing system including a control unit having a display unit for displaying a visual representation of a sheet or document with more than one selectable document-finishing operation. The adaptable visual representation is provided with selection areas that represent selectable document-finishing operations. A document-finishing operation can be selected by activating an associated selection area. The visual representation of the sheet or document is continuously adapted or updated to reflect a newly selected document-finishing operation. However, while Streefkerk provides identification of finishing options not available from a particular finishing device, he does not apply rules to identify which finishing option locations are valid for a succession of finishing operations to be concurrently applied to a single document. Additionally, rather than presenting the user with a clear listing of finishing operations and their associated valid locations, the user interface utilizes symbolic representations which may not be intuitive to all users.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,873,426 to Farrell (“Method and Apparatus to Provide Alternate or Abstract Finishing to a Print Job”) describes a printing system providing literal finishing and abstract finishing to a print job. The printing system includes a user interface for supplying print job information including desired finishing instructions. A finishing element applies a finishing operation to a print job, and a processor is in communication with both the user interface and the finishing element. The processor determines compatibility between the finishing element and the desired finishing instruction and upon determining incompatibility, selects a compatible finishing instruction for the finishing element. The compatible finishing instruction may be either a literal finishing operation available on the printing system, or an abstract finishing operation, such as insertion of slip sheets or marking separators between compilation boundaries of a print job with data including machine-readable code or human-readable code indicative of the desired final finishing operation. However, Farrell provides only a means to identify finishing capabilities that are not available on a particular printer/finisher device; it does not provide the capability for concurrent programming of multiple finishing operations.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,930,791 to Jackelen (“Method for Selecting a Finishing Device for Digital Printing”) teaches a method for selecting finishing devices to perform finishing operations on a print run. In operation, the printing device selects a finishing device that can perform all demands and a maximum number of suggestions. The suggested finishing operations are stored in a memory of the printing device and may be defaults or entered by a printer operator. Upon selecting the finishing device, the printing device directs the print run to the selected finishing device for processing. Jackelen is directed to selected to selecting a finishing device to be utilized for a particular job based on the capabilities of the device and does not provide capability for concurrent multiple finishing operation programming.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,965,390 to Alimpich et al. (“Method, System, and Program for Selecting Devices to Use to Execute Selected Tasks in a Graphical User Interface”) teaches a data processing controlled display system for the interactive display and control of a hierarchical tree of elements or objects in which multiple tree views are presented to the user. The objects in the views are selectable to display detail views of the objects, particularly attributes of the child objects of the selected parent object. The multiple tree views may be of different portions of the same tree or of different trees. The tree views are thus available for side-by-side comparison. The disclosed embodiments provide examples of improved solutions to the problems noted in the above Background discussion and the art cited therein. Alimpich et al. enables the selection of a particular device based on operative and available functionality, but does not provide for concurrent multiple operation programming of operations.
The disclosed embodiments provide examples of improved solutions to the problems noted in the above Background discussion and the art cited therein. There is shown in these examples an improved method for utilizing a graphical user interface in a controller for a production system for concurrent programming of multiple feature operations to a single production job. The method includes presenting options on the user interface for the selection of job properties or queue properties, with queue properties defined as default values for the virtual device to which the job will be submitted and job properties defined as job feature selection options. The job feature selection options may be hidden or displayed to enable the selection of valid job feature combinations only. Toggle controls are utilized for job feature options whose operation is limited by previously selected job feature options. The application of any valid combination of selected job feature options on the completed production job is illustrated on a dynamic graphic.
In another embodiment there is provided a production system controller having a display in the form of a graphical user interface for concurrent programming of multiple feature operations to a single production job. The graphical user interface presents options for the selection of job properties or queue properties, with queue properties defined as default values for the virtual device to which the job will be submitted and job properties defined as job feature selection options. Job feature selection options may be hidden or displayed to enable the selection of valid job feature combinations only. Toggle controls are utilized for job feature options whose operation is limited by previously selected job feature options. The application of any valid combination of selected job feature options on the completed production job is illustrated on a dynamic graphic.
In another embodiment there is provided a document production device utilizing a graphical user interface to program document finishing operations. The graphical user interface causes the document production device to perform method steps for concurrent programming of document finishing operations to a single production job. The method includes presenting options on the user interface for the selection of job properties or queue properties, with queue properties defined as default values for the virtual device to which the job will be submitted and job properties defined as job feature selection options. To enable the selection of only valid job feature combinations, various job feature selection options may be hidden or displayed. Toggle controls are utilized for job feature options whose operation is limited by previously selected job feature options. The application of any valid combination of selected job feature options on the completed production job is illustrated on a dynamic graphic.
In yet another embodiment there is provided a computer-readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied in the medium. When the program code is executed by a computer, the program code causes the computer to perform method steps for concurrent programming of multiple feature operations to a single production job. The method includes presenting options on the user interface for the selection of job properties or queue properties, with queue properties defined as default values for the virtual device to which the job will be submitted and job properties defined as job feature selection options. The job feature selection options may be hidden or displayed to enable the selection of valid job feature combinations only. Toggle controls are utilized for job feature options whose operation is limited by previously selected job feature options. The application of any valid combination of selected job feature options on the completed production job is illustrated on a dynamic graphic.